Dev Blog #20: Short Update on Chroma Road

Hey, y'all! I don't have too much time to whip this post up, so I'm gonna just leave you with a few of my recent screens and a short commentary. Chroma Road is coming along swimmingly thus far! Check out these images :)

Here's the first screen. Notice the UI enhancements at the top,
particularly the timer.

The number in the top left is a score counter. You gain 1 point
for getting through a gate.

When you die, this is what you see. The screen keeps scrolling, by the way.

As I said, so far, so good. The music I'm making for the game is nearing completion, and as soon as I finish the main menu (a feature I am notorious for leaving til the last minute), only polish will remain! I'm aiming for August 30th as a release date, currently.

See you later everyone!!!

A Quick Retrospective on Tips & Tricks Magazine

Hey everyone! I'm here for a quick post for the week, and I decided that I would take this as an opportunity to bring some attention to a subject that isn't talked about too much anymore: physical-copy video game magazines. Specifically, I wanted to talk about Tips & Tricks Magazine, which is in my opinion the greatest gaming publication of all time. This isn't meant to be a long or in-depth feature about Tips & Tricks, but rather just a moment for me to give some props to a bygone era of gaming journalism, as well as perhaps introduce some of my readers to T&T if they've never seen it before. :)

A sample Tips & Tricks cover, showcasing some awesome games.

Tips & Tricks was a magazine that ran between 1993 and 2007. Unlike most gaming-related publications, Tips & Tricks didn't produce reviews or anything like that. Their main focus was on providing readers with gameplay help and lots of cheat codes. The magazine was famous for its cheats, which were featured in huge, alphabetized lists in the back of each issue. They also had huge features and walkthroughs at the front of the magazine that provided plenty of assistance to those that might purchase the games they covered.

T&T had something special, though, and it wasn't just the cheat codes. Where as most gaming magazines even then functioned as hype-and-review machines or specialized newspapers, T&T was always about playing the games you already had :) It had an interesting perspective and was an invaluable tool in the pre-Game FAQs era. Tips & Tricks also had numerous columns throughout the magazine that focused on specific gaming communities (Halo, Final Fantasy) or on peripheral aspects of video games (such as Japanese imports or game collecting). In short, Tips & Tricks was the ultimate hobbyist video game publication, and was, for me personally, an amazingly enriching lifeline into the broader gaming community, especially before the internet got into full swing.

A selection from my own Tips & Tricks collection. I had lots more as
a kid, but I'm slowly building back up :)

 
But, alas, all good things must come to an end. Like many magazines, Tips & Tricks wasn't able to handle the oncoming of digital media very well. The aforementioned Game FAQs site largely made their walkthroughs pointless, and it wasn't long before huge catalogues of cheat codes sprang up around the internet as well. In 2007, T&T made the switch from a monthly magazine to a quarterly (then semi-annually) "Codebook," or simple collection of cheat codes. Even this was not enough to save them, however. The Codebooks themselves ceased publication in 2011, and just like that Tips & Tricks passed with the wind into the realm of history.

Nowadays, Tips & Tricks doesn't get much remembrance. There is an excellent in-depth history of the publication on GameLosers.net, which features interviews with several staff members. There are also a few scans of some early issues available from the Internet Archive. Chris Bieniek, Editor-In-Chief of T&T and the mastermind behind much of the magazine's greatness, runs a site called Video Game Ephemera, where he showcases some of the items in his jaw-droppingly huge collection of gaming paraphernalia (he also gave a really cool interview to Atari HQ many years ago where he talked about his early career and gave some insight into T&T's predecessors and founding. Worth a read!). And... that's pretty much it! Like much print media before the internet era, it isn't new, so it isn't tended to.  

Tips & Tricks magazine is something of a relic at this point, but its pages still brim with a wealth of information for anyone courageous enough to brave a paper-cut :) It was a huge part of my childhood, and in many ways, I wish that it or something like it were still around. I have yet to find a game-playing-focused publication either physically or digitally that truly recaptures the sense of pure hobbyist enjoyment that T&T had. Maybe that doesn't exist anymore, but in this era of rampant clickbait, multi-year-long hype that ends in bitter disappointment, acidic reviews, and constant gamer infighting, the peaceable world of Tips & Tricks, where games are just about having some fun, is something I personally can't help but long for.

Whew! :) That's about all I have to say this week. I promise next week will be more on topic of my usual fare, such my upcoming game Chroma Road. See you then!

Dev Blog #19: Chroma Road Progress Report

Aloha! How is everyone today? I'm pretty good, myself. In case anyone missed it on my twitter (or, I should say, since you probably missed it) I'll mention here that I've decided that my weekly blog posts will come on Mondays from now on, instead of over the weekend like before. That's when I've been getting around to it lately, anyway :P

Anyway, hello again, and welcome to the 19th edition of my dev blog posts! This week I have some fun and exciting news regarding my upcoming #1GAM game, Chroma Road! What's more, I have screenshots! Whoopee! Read on :)

First and foremost, I have running, lane switching, and color changing all implemented in the game. Chroma Road is a 3-lane endless runner/color puzzle game, so these are the main things the player can do. Here's a sampling:

The background scrolls by, and the player runs forward automatically.

Press Z, X, or C to change color, and try to correspond them to the gates.

You can activate more than one color at a time to turn to a secondary color!

 
So far so good with the game! The scrolling gates are just images for now, but in the final game they'll be obstacles that are impassable unless you are the correct color. Also soon to be added: a timer, a score tracker, incremental difficulty, and improved graphics :)

Also, I've been using this game as an excuse to learn to use the HaxeFlixel framework. It has been going well so far. HaxeFlixel has a bit of a different approach to what I am accustomed to with game development APIs, in that its approach is sort of to have everything packaged and available if you choose to use it. HaxeFlixel has a learning curve, especially if you haven't got any experience with Flash ActionScript, but it is well worth the effort of learning. I'm hoping to be able to contribute somewhat to the project in the future, once my Haxe chops have improved.

Quick screen of my IDE, FlashDevelop. Check out that sick color coordination :0

(By the way, if you want to support HaxeFlixel, they currently have an IndieGoGo campaign going on right now. Support them if you can!)

That should do for today :) Hopefully I've given you something to look forward to when my game comes out later this month! See you soon!

Dev Blog #18: Announcing Chroma Road!

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the first dev blog here in over a month! I'm a day late today (yet again), but that's partly because I was waiting for the first day of August so I could announce my next #1GAM game! :D This month's game is called Chroma Road! Read about it below! :)

Current logo for Chroma Road! The pink will be transparent in the game.

Chroma Road is an endless runner/color puzzle game that features multiple lanes you can run in. You control a player character that has the power to change primary colors, which allows you to navigate through colored gates that block your path. The game will be very fast, and the puzzles get harder and harder as time goes on!

I'm making this game in Haxe, using HaxeFlixel. I am really enjoying using these tools so far, and I think that HaxeFlixel is going to become my go-to game development instrument.

I'll have more to discuss about Chroma Road in the coming weeks :) Until next time everyone! Peace out!

One Hour Game Jam Complete, RUNNERMAN Released!

Hi, hello, how are ya? Well, I guess I'm doing fine. By the way, I completed the One Hour Game Jam today! Yep, that's right, I made a game from (pretty much) scratch in exactly an hour (I was racing the clock at the end!) and it is now playable online! Check it out below :)

 

Its beautiful! No, wait, the other one. Hideous.

This is RUNNERMAN, a very VERY simple and bare-bones game that I made using python and pygame today between 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM. You can download and play it here. You start running by pressing the Right Cursor button, and jump while running by pressing the Up Cursor Button. The goal is simply to jump high. There's not much to it :P

The One Hour Game Jam was a lot of fun, but it was very challenging. It was my first game jam ever, so there's that as well! I liked it though, and even though I'm not exactly in love with what I was able to produce, I would definitely do it again! Next time, though, I'll use something that allows me to produce results faster. PICO-8 in particular looks interesting, and several One Hour Game Jam participants use it. Maybe I should give it a shot too :)

This game will serve as my #1GAM entry for July, and I'll get around to putting it on the site in a little bit.

That about does it for this week! If you play this bad boy, let me know how much you hate it in the comments! :D

So long!

Games on the Menu #2

Hello hello everyone! I'm back again, but I don't really have too much to say regarding game development. I'll have a bit about that at the bottom of the article, but first, I thought this would be a great chance to talk again about the games I'm currently playing! I did this once before back in April, and I'm playing some different stuff now, so I figured I should update you all :)

As I said back then, I'm no professional reviewer, and I've kinda decided that I'm not really so much reviewing these games as I am trying to describe what I like about them and why you, the reader, might want to check them out. After all, I'm not going to play games I don't like for long periods of time, and these are all games I play regularly, which means that any "review" I might do would be pretty pointless since there's no chance of me saying the game is bad :P

Anyway, that aside, let's move on!

THE CROOKED MAN

FREE HUGS!

The Crooked Man is a horror/exploration game by Japanese indie developer Uri, who created it using the WOLF RPG Editor (which is kind of like RPG Maker). I love RPG Maker horror games (Ao Oni being far and away my favorite), so I had been meaning to try this out for a long time. I finally got around to playing it the other day, and it's pretty cool! I won't spoil anything, but safe to say, if you are into horror games, check it out. It's not really SUPER scary, but it's pretty compelling and interesting, and the monster is creepy. I'd probably have already beaten it by this point, but I keep forgetting to save for an hour or better at a time, and then dying, thus losing lots of progress. Always remember to save, kids!

COBRA TRIANGLE

Now all that's missing is David Wise's awesome soundtrack!

Not too long ago, I busted out my NES for the first time in over a year, and had a look through the games I had to play. I had several that I had never actually tried (I had been given several cartridges a while ago, and wasn't playing the NES at the time). One that caught my eye was this early Rare title, Cobra Triangle. I gave it a shot, and I'm glad I did! Cobra Triangle is an isometric action game with shooting/racing elements. You pilot a speed boat through various levels and try to accomplish different tasks while watching the clock and attempting to avoid damage. It's very fun, and each of the levels is unique and well-designed. It is also SOOOO HARD. This game will whoop your rear end every time you try to play it, and then some :) It's very good though, and as long are you aren't put off by the difficulty in other classic games (Cobra Triangle is hard, but not the hardest on the NES and definitely not the hardest ever), give it play or two. I consider it to be an underrated title, along with some of my other NES favorites like Section Z and Legend of Kage.

BASTION

Did I mention I'm behind the curve? Yeah, well, I am.

Bastion is an action adventure game by Supergiant that was released way back in 2011 for Xbox Live Arcade. I remember seeing it there, back in the days of 360 yore, but I never tried it (I was too busy trying all those atrocious Minecraft knock-offs that were in the Indie Game section of Xbox Live). I finally got this game a few weeks ago on Steam, and I like it so far. The game looks beautiful, of course, and it makes for an engaging dungeon-crawler-esque game. I like the customization and upgrade options. It's a pretty good game all around.


So, that will about do it for this week's games :) But before I go...


So, here's my plan for #1GAM this month: I want to take part in a game jam! :D I've never actually done one before, but after having gotten some practice under my belt, I feel compelled to finally give jamming a chance. I want to take part in the LudumDare, but that isn't until the end of next month, so I've decided that instead I'll go for the One Hour Game Jam! 


For those unfamiliar, the One Hour Game Jam is, just like its name implies, a game jam that lasts for exactly one hour, held every Saturday. At the start of the hour, a theme is announced, and the participants must turn in a complete (though almost certainly microscopically small) game after just 60 minute. This is a pretty extreme challenge to undertake, but I have a decent backlog of code that I can shape to fit any game I'm making. I observed the action this past week, and I'm looking forward to participating myself, either this coming Saturday or the next. Stay tuned!


Well, that should about do it for today. See you around! Remember to save your games!!

Star Fall Released!

Woohoo! I'm back already, folks, and I'm overjoyed to bring you my seventh #1GAM game, Star Fall! That's right, you can play it yourself now, free of charge, as always! :)

The once and future title image of Star Fall

You can download the game on Game Jolt here: http://gamejolt.com/games/star-fall/160883
or on Itch.io here: https://hellamagellan.itch.io/star-fall

From my description on the game pages: Star Fall is a lovely, relaxing game about catching stars as they fall from the night sky! Play as an adorable stuffed bear in a dreamy world where the stars are within your reach! Watch the spinning stars as they drift toward the clouds on which you stand, and score points by catching them in your net before they hit the cloud. Be careful, though! Some stars are large and magical, and if you miss these, it's game over!

This game was a lot of fun to make, primarily because I got to collaborate with wonderful artist (and stellar girlfriend) calmcalling on it :) Her artwork is far and away my favorite part of Star Fall. I think once you play the game, you'll agree with me!

Thanks, as always, to those of you who follow my blog! I couldn't 'a done it without'cha! If you play this game (or any of my others) and enjoy it, or even if you don't, please comment below! I'd love to hear from any and every one of my readers and/or players :)

See you next time, everyone! Ciao!

Dev Blog #17: Quick Update

Hey, everyone! I'm here to offer a brief update on the status of my upcoming #1GAM game, Star Fall. This week has been pretty busy, but I've managed to find some time for development, and now the game is nearing a completed state! Check it out!

There isn't TOO much to show off this week, since the main gameplay consists of a static screen you move around on. However, you will surely notice that the wonderful artwork by calmcalling really brings the atmosphere together :)

The art is a major focus of this game, and it's looking great so far!

Another screen...

Some art still needs to be done (namely, the main character sprite), but the programming is actually about 95% done. I'm hoping to release in the middle of next week, so stay tuned! :)

See you then, everyone!

Dev Blog #16: Running and Falling

Hello, folks! Time for another weekend update on the status of my #1GAM endeavors! This week I have some new info to bring you about my June 2016 game, Star Fall! Check it out!

The gameplay programming is broadly done, and you have the ability to guide your avatar left and right, and to catch the stars that randomly fall in your net. You gain score, which is displayed in the upper-right-hand corner. Here's a (rather primitive) screenshot:

Fancy lookin, huh? :P

You earn points by catching stars, and the rate at which the stars fall increases slowly over time. Also, instead of flying off-screen when they reach the edge, the stars bounce back towards the center. I'm thinking of making them do something similar if they hit your player character, but not your net.

As you can see, the graphics are obviously lacking, but that's because my guest artist is still working on the art, so I haven't even tried to put my pitiful programmer 'art' in the game :) Yep, it's just plane ol' squares on black backgrounds so far ;)

This game has a bit of a different design goal than my previous #1GAM entries. Firstly (and most obviously), the artwork is the primary focus of the whole project. Secondly, though, I decided to make this game purposely easier than my previous games. I may have ramped up the difficulty a bit too much recently (Keyro, Torso Ninja II) , and I don't want to fall in the trap of making games that only have content in the form of discouragingly hard challenges. Make no mistake: you CAN lose in Star Fall, but hopefully repeated loss will not be the default mode of this game :)

That about does for the time being. See you next week, hopefully with some finalized art for me to show off :D

Dev Blog #15: Announcing Star Fall!

Hi! I have returned once again to announce my current #1GAM game. This month's project is called Star Fall!

Check out the fancy logo!

Star Fall is a game about collecting falling stars from the night sky. You play as a bear with a net on a mission to catch the plummeting stars. You navigate around, left and right, trying to catch the stars as they fall. Smaller stars will give you points for catching them, but watch out for the big stars: you must catch them, or you will lose!


Gameplay-wise, Star Fall is inspired somewhat by older arcade/home console games like Joust or (to a lesser extent) Breakout. I'm making this game because I feel like my recent #1GAM games might be a bit too difficult, so I want this to be a more chilled out, somewhat relaxing game to play.

Also, I should mention, the artwork for this game is being done by a very special guest! My girlfriend, who goes by calmcalling online, will be making all the art and animations for Star Fall! She's waaaaaay better than me at art, so this game should be the best looking one I've put out ;) Check her out on deviantArt here.

That about does it, I suppose. I'll keep you filled in when something new comes up :) Until then, take it easy!  

Torso Ninja II Released!

Hello everyone! I'm super excited to announce the release of my sixth #1GAM game, Torso Ninja II! That's right, its out! Hooray! Just in the nick of time too ;)

The logo, which I still like :)

Torso Ninja II is the sequel to my December 2015 #1GAM game, Torso Ninja. In this game, like its predecessor, you play as the brave (and armless) Torso Ninja, who is beset from all directions by his enemies, the Red Ninjas. You, the player, must use your mouse pointer to guide Torso Ninja safely through his enemies' barrages of bullets (err, shuriken), all the while collecting power-ups and and trying to get the highest score possible! You must also beware, for the Red Ninjas' evil leader, Goemon, might just make an appearance to try and destroy our heroic shinobi himself...

Play the game on Game Jolt: http://gamejolt.com/games/torso-ninja-ii/153329
Or play it on Itch.io: https://hellamagellan.itch.io/torso-ninja-2

This is the biggest game I've made since Cargo, and I would probably consider Torso Ninja II to be the best game I've ever made. I think I've come a long way since starting #1GAM, and I hope this game exemplifies that somewhat :)

Most importantly, though, I hope you, the audience, like this game and find it fun! I certainly had a great time making it, and I would love to hear from any and all of you who read this, and/or play my games :) Leave a shoutout below here on my blog, or comment on my Game Jolt and Itch.io game pages! You can even find me on twitter @HellaMagellan!

See you next time! Hope you enjoy this new game! :D 

P.S. As a side note, remember that you can edit the levels yourself using the level config files in the data\lvl\ directory of the Torso Ninja II folder. There's a short help file in there, so check it out! :)

Dev Blog #14: Almost Done!

Hi! How's everyone's week been? I've had a pretty good one, not the least because I made a ton of progress on my next #1GAM game, Torso Ninja II! It's very nearly done at this point, and I'm aiming to release it this coming Tuesday (the last day of the month, in fact). Here's a sampling of what I've gotten done this week!

First and foremost, the main menu has been improved significantly. It now looks halfway presentable :)
 

Yay! Main menu!

Next, I also completed the backgrounds for all three of the levels, and got all the music, level transitions, and game over screens working.
 

Level 1: The Forest

Level 2: The Plains

Level 3: The Castle

 
Many, many other, more minor things were completed this week, as well. This has been a very productive week. Good thing too! I'm running out of time! :)

That about does it for now, ladies and germs. As I said, I fully expect to release this game on Tuesday, so you'll be hearing from me pretty soon!

See you then!   

Dev Blog #13: Getting There!

Hi, everybody! Believe it or not, I'm on time for a dev blog this week! Woo! I've gotten a good bit done on TN2 this past week, and I've even begun finalizing the bullet patterns that will appear in the actual game. Check it out!

The main thing I've completed this week is the HUD and the ability to drop smoke bombs. This is an integral new feature that allows you to become invincible for a few seconds and escape a dangerous situation. Take a look!

The HUD, complete with score, bombs, and lives.

A smoke bomb is used. You can't tell in this image, but Torso Ninja is blinking.

I've also completed a skeletal version of the main menu (allowing you to start the game, and not much else) and put in some of the first patterns. Here's the second set of screenshots:

Bare-bones title screen. I promise this is definitely not final!

Early pattern. I'm thinking the bullets might be a bit too small...

So there you have it! One on-time dev blog, for your consumption! I'm running out of time on Torso Ninja 2 at this point, but even if it doesn't look like I'm nearing completion (because I've saved the graphics for last), its coming along nicely. I'll continue to be on time for this month's #1GAM, I'm almost certain :)

See you later!

Dev Blog #11: Scrolling and Shooting

Hello again! I'm back this week with a little bit of a status update on my work-in-progress game, Torso Ninja II. I've also got a couple of small screenshots to share, more to give a rough idea of the way the game will work than to provide any concrete details. So, let's get to it!

My goals for this past week were a bit subdued, as my Spring finals are going on (only one more week to go... ;_;) but I got the visuals up and running. As I mentioned previously, I'm making this game in Pygame, so I'm very familiar with what needs to be done at this point.

Here are the screens:

 

The screen scrolls and Torso Ninja follows your pointer, like in the original.

That cryptic blue dot is a bullet. No hard patterns up and running so far.

 

I should also mention that the bullets are going to have much more complex behaviors in this game than in the previous Torso Ninja. I'm drawing inspiration from my favorite curtain fire games, and I've got simple trigonometric movement working for the bullets already, so stay tuned for crazy spirals of death ;)

So, there's a taste of my past week of work. I hope to eventually include 3 total levels, and maaaaayyyyybe, just maybe, a boss at the end of the final one (that one's on the 'dreams' list for now though).

See you in a week or so :) Peace!

Dev Blog #10: Announcing Torso Ninja II!

HELLLLLLOOOOOO!

I'm back again folks, and this time I have some exciting news! For my next #1GAM game, I'll be revisiting one of my older games. That's right, I'm making a sequel to Torso Ninja! Hold on to your hats!

Torso Ninja II's logo, of which I am actually quite proud :)

Torso Ninja was my first #1GAM game, and it was (in my opinion) a pretty choppy affair. I made it in a hurry and the only goal I had was to publicly release it, so its a very small, only mildly amusing game. Nonetheless, it is far and away my most popular game, both among my friends and family, and with the internet at large (it actually has more plays on Game Jolt than all my other games combined).

I feel like I've come a long way as a game developer since last December (when I released the original Torso Ninja), and I want to prove that by reviving this game and making it as awesome as I can. So here's the plan! :)

The gimmick of Torso Ninja is that its a bullet-hell shooter where you can't shoot back; you can only dodge. I feel like this is a pretty solid concept, as, having played a few danmaku/curtain fire/bullet-hell type games myself, it seems like the vast majority of the gameplay centers around dodging anyway, with firing back as only a sub-component. The main focus of development on Torso Ninja II, therefor, will be on making dodging both fun and challenging. I have a few ideas, but you'll have to wait a bit to hear about them :)

Lastly, before I go, I think it bears mentioning exactly how I'm gonna make this game. I originally planned to make Torso Ninja II in Construct Classic, but I kept running into snags with getting a test version of a bullet pattern up and running. I was attempting to use Construct's built-in Python scripting support, but the main problem was not having any way to index specific instances of any of the game objects, which made dozens of bullets firing in all different directions at once pretty much impossible. Unfortunately, I ended up simply giving up on Construct and deciding to make the game in Python with Pygame (the same as the original Torso Ninja). It might slow development somewhat, but with Pygame I'll have all the direct control I need to make this game a reality :)

Adios, until next time!

Dev Blog #9: Screenshots

Hey there! Time for another quick update on the progress of my March #1GAM game, Keyro! I'll be keeping this blog a bit short, since I mainly have very little to say as far as an update goes :P However, I do have one thing that might interest those who are anticipating this game: screenshots!

Keyro is starting to look pretty good. As I mentioned in my previous dev blogs, it is a vertically-scrolling game. I have the walls, background, and the all-important keys artwork-complete. Check 'em out!

This is the main screen that you'll be looking at during gameplay. The
HUD is not yet implemented.

Look, a key!

Ooh, another!

So far so good with Keyro. It is a much smaller game than my last two entries, but it should be done quite soon! I have the whole of next week off, so I intend to complete it in a burst of productivity during that time! :)

See ya!

(P.S. This is the first blog post I've made from my newly-built gaming PC :) Its been about six months in the making, but its done now! I have yet to get my GPU [A 4GB Nvidia GTX 960. I'm going for the EVGA one], but the computer runs!)

Dev Blog #8: Announcing Keyro!

Hey, hi, how ya doin'? Hopefully you folks have been having a pretty good week! I've been busy with, among (many) other things, the artwork and code for my next #1GAM game. I've got pictures this time! And, what's more, this project now has a name! I'm pleased to introduce: Keyro - Arena Lockdown!

I hope you like terribly forced puns in your video game titles.

In this game, as I mentioned before, you must run through a vertical maze of spiked walls that scroll against you, and try to escape the deathtrap. Keys feature prominently in the game (hence the title), as sometimes your progress will be impeded by a locked door and you must have a key to open it.

Much of the artwork is in a very primitive state, so I'm gonna hold off on showing screen shots for the time being. I will, however, showcase a pair of very simple sprites that make up much of what you actually see in game:

This is your intrepid hero, who looks somewhat like a viking.

And this is an evil integrated circuit... Naw, its just a spike wall :P

I have had quite a time making this game so far, and progress has been very slow. This is entirely due to the fact that I'm learning and re-learning javscript at the same time as making the game. I've yet to succeed in one of these endeavors wherein I attempt to learn a language by making a game in it, but this time will break that losing streak! :)

That's about all I have for the moment. See you later on!